1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to information management and, more particularly, to a system adapted to improve collaborative work and communications across organizational boundaries to manage projects, programs, and community and emergency events.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Increasingly, governance organizations have difficulties planning, managing, and tracking the thousands of projects, programs, and events, many of which are cross-jurisdictional. As an example, each year, these organizations miss valuable funding opportunities or miss submittal deadline dates resulting in loss of funding. They have minimal visibility regarding the accuracy of estimates, project status, and funding status. Delays in communication result in delayed action at each step and ultimately compound into unnecessarily long, inefficient and protracted processes. There is no software application on the marketplace that facilitates and tracks all information needed to truly manage the full lifecycle of these public and private projects, programs, actions, and events.
There are various software packages that could be deployed, but they do not create a comprehensive, cohesive and intuitive system that is easy to use. Most implementations of these software packages are Client/Server applications, not pure web applications. This means that the scope of users is limited to the intranet of the organization, or perhaps an extranet. Even newer packages that are web based are not implemented in such a manner as to provide seamless user operation across hundreds of organizations. These software packages offer some functionality, yet miss satisfying these and other critical needs within this community of organizations. None of these application software vendors are building subscriber-shareable knowledge-bases. The software development activities of these vendors are generally oriented to solving the problems of corporations or traditional businesses and not the problems of multi-agency public and private groups.
For example, there are various types of softwares that provide for some of the needs of government organizations, but fall short of delivering the breadth and functionality that is really needed by governance applications.
Collaborative Groupware Software offers contact databases, calendars, “to-do” lists, e-mail messaging and document organization. They do not have any governance specific applications (e.g. funding, estimating, etc.) nor do they automatically track communications per any entity.
ERP systems, or Enterprise Resource Planning systems, operate based on products, product sales, inventory for distribution, profitability and other issues that are not germane to government related organizations and, further, do not offer the functionality needed for multi-agency use. This type of software can not be easily or effectively applied to government applications. Although there have been attempts to customize business software for some government applications, the organization often gives up the ability to effectively maintain the software because of new version releases that require additional customization to continue operation in the government environment. Even then, they cannot track multiple funding sources over numerous fiscal years.
Program & Project Management Systems are software packages that allow users to develop Gantt type project plans (similar to Microsoft Project). Most of these systems are used by one person, the project manager, who updates the plan and task dates by verbal communications and status meetings. None offers the ability for team members, from different organizations, to update plan dates and information. Some offer the ability to view programs or multiple projects. None offers the capability of multi-jurisdictional planning, nor do they allow users to set precedence on projects, instead of just tasks. Furthermore, these systems support the user plan at the task level, which quickly becomes overwhelmingly difficult when thousands of projects need to be managed. Governance communities need a system that can help them manage projects at a higher level, and help manage contractors and roles instead of individuals. None of the known program and project management systems supports true governance life-cycle, from project request to warranty.
Construction Integrated Systems are software packages that track the financial information and handle job costing for construction type firms. Many of the functions that are needed by contractors are available in such software. Still contractors do not have automation for the bid and contract paperwork/forms or message triggers for pre-construction meetings and have no means to work with a city government to receive payment quicker using web forms and e-pay functions. Furthermore, these systems are limited to a contractor's enterprise; they do not easily “rollup” and manage subcontractors or work collaboratively with city project managers, inspectors, and utility coordinators.
Spreadsheet Templates—There are a multitude of small software templates that track everything from assets, estimating, petitions, facilities, and the like. This software, however, does not have the ability or structure to handle large volume applications. Currently, federal, state, regional, and municipal governance organizations, as well as the private sector, do much of their required work by e-mailing spreadsheets and mailing associated documents among various personnel. Many standalone spreadsheet and commercial database applications exist, some with good functionality; but they cannot be employed enterprise-wide or multi-organizationally.
Other Point Solutions—There are a multitude of other software packages that provide point solutions such as estimating, work order management, timekeeping, performance management, and the like. These are usually not enterprise systems and provide little, if any, ability to develop standards and share information with others.
None of the software listed above addresses the needs of governance type organizations with their unique multi-level independent and overlapping multi-organizational boundaries. Further these traditional types of software do not allow the creation of individual user interfaces and permissions, nor do they allow independent self created and maintained user records. Further, traditional software does not combine permission based access, allow a user to create an interface for a particular job function, and is not designed to provide automatic escalation of information both within an organization and across multi-organizational boundaries.